An important aspect of health care concerns the cost effective distribution of pharmaceuticals. This is especially important in settings such as hospitals, where the pharmaceuticals for a large number of patients are commonly dispensed from a central pharmacy housed within the hospital. Hospitals typically employ a number of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to oversee the hospital's pharmacy. Additionally, a relatively large inventory is kept on hand due to the rapid depletion of stock. Obviously, employing several individuals to do a job which is associated with sporadic activity is subject to review in the face of what some view as spiralling health care costs. Additionally, freeing pharmacists to spend more of their time with doctors and patients improves the quality of the health care provided.
Concerns about the increasing cost of health care have lead to the introduction of automated drug retrieval systems, some of which systems utilize robotics. There are several advantages associated with the use of robotics. First, there are the obvious savings in salaries, since individuals are replaced with machines. Second, there is a greater reliability associated with robotics that incorporate bar code scanning which select an item for retrieval as opposed to the possibility of human error in reading the item to be retrieved. This significantly redues the potential for pharmacy malpractice. Third, there is the elimination of product being misappropriated from a storage area by individuals for their own subsequent use or resale.
In one example of an existing robotic drug retrieval system, or a robotic medication dispensing system as it is also known, the pharmaceutical to be retrieved is typically placed inside a sealed plastic bag for subsequent scanning and selection. The robotic drug retrieval system has as part of a hospital's central pharmacy a secured area having two opposing walls with pegs thereon and with a robot which circulates within this area. As a pharmacy technician loads a pharmacy cart for the distribution of pharmaceuticals to various patients, the technician in a robotic drug retrieval system utilizes a patient tray having affixed thereto bar codes identifying the name of particular patients and their locations within the hospital. The robotic drug retrieval system thereafter selects the specific drugs required to be delivered to a particular patient and puts them into the patient tray and provides the filled tray to the pharmacy technician for subsequent distribution to the patient. Once the sealed plastic bags have been removed from their corresponding pegs on the walls by the robot, it becomes necessary to restock that distribution area. In order for this to be done, the robot must place new bags on the pegs.
Additional concerns regarding costs have resulted in the decision to design a reusable container for use with one of the leading robotic drug retrieval systems. A reusable container not only assists in controlling health care costs, but facilitates better and easier control of inventory.
It is thus apparent that the need exists for an improved pharmaceutical distribution container or the like for use with robotic drug retrieval systems.